Pages

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Waffle Bus

Some of you guys may be familiar with the Waffle Bus because it's been parked in front of the UC at the University of Houston all semester long; others of you might know it from it's sordid night life. The rest of you aren't cool enough to track Houston food trucks around town, a la Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (but less slutty.)(Did you guys see that movie? What was up with that piece of gum? That's pretty gross stay classy guys -12)
Anyway. Look here's the thing, I think we all stand on the same plane on the pancake/waffle debate. Waffles are way better: they are crispier, they are perfectly honeycombed to trap in maximum amounts of butter and syrup, they are square, you can make them easily into cool shapes like the state of Texas with a "UH" emblazoned on it with just the purchase of a waffle iron in the desired shape, you can turn them into the best kind of ice cream cone. (Though honestly I just like the way waffle cones are shaped; they are actual cones. Shouldn't all ice cream cones be coned shaped? I mean it seems like it's the sort of thing that FDA Truth in Menu laws should cover, they shouldn't be those weird two tiered shapes where it's like a cylinder and then there's like this rounded semicircle resting on top, that is not a cone, that's not even a real shape, they have to come up with something different for that. At least waffle cones are honest about what they are, they aren't trying to lie to you about anything.) And then as well it (along, admittedly, with the dreaded pancakes) is in the highest tier of foods, breakfast foods, which as you know I consume for 90% of my meals. So I'll give the Waffle Bus that. +67
I'll admit though that I was a little disappointed when I looked at their menu. I like waffles covered in different fruits and different syrups, and I'll admit that there's not a lot of different things you can do with waffles, but their menu seems to focus less on breakfast waffles and more on chicken and waffles. Which is fine I guess, but chicken and waffles to me is a recent trend whereas waffles and fruit is something that will stand by you through anything, through your drinking problem, through your divorce, through the repeated hospitalization of your fish Melvin. Chicken and waffles never did that for me. Chicken and waffles just wants to go to your birthday party if there's going to be a lot of hot girls there. Chicken and waffles wants to talk about themselves all the time. Chicken and waffles is only going to go to the bar with you if someone else is DDing. And who got the majority of the menu space? Chicken and waffles. -23 Don't get me wrong, there was probably an equal distribution of menu items among the two, but the words "Chicken and Waffles" was written WAY bigger! And way more times! It's disrespect and I want to apologize to waffles and fruit and say that I went with the fair weather friend and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
On the topic of food trucks, though, can we take a moment to discuss issues around Houston? Now, I don't like to talk politics (I'm just kidding, I love to talk politics) but this guy came into one of my classes and was talking about his involvement with the National Restaurant Association and Texas Restaurant Association and the involvement with both of them in forming the legislation around Houston, and legislation regarding food trucks in general. He stood up in front of the class and told us that it wasn't fair that brick and mortar restaurants invest millions of dollars in capital in order to turn a profit and food trucks only invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital to turn the same profit, and that it wasn't fair that food trucks had less overhead and could travel to where the business was and didn't have to wait for the business to travel to them, and that we should enact legislation to even the playing field. Now I don't want to tell you how to think (yes I do), but don't you think that if it's more efficient to build food trucks, then maybe we should have more of them, rather than less? If cooking is an art form, then shouldn't we have more, more innovative art than restricting ourselves to art that is clearly too expensive and inconvenient to support itself? I'm not saying I'm never going to eat at a brick and mortar restaurant ever again, obviously, in the history of this blog this is only the second food truck I've reviewed. I'm just saying that I think it's important for us to celebrate the things that are pulling culinary arts forward instead of pushing them to the back, and I'm calling out for that in the most public forum I know how, my famous restaurant review blog! If you're interested, you can find more information at mfuhouston.com and you can sign a petition to remove some of the harsher regulation, here.

1 comment:

First, why are there cake cones in the first place and why would you want to order a fake cone? (This question is for my mom, the cake "cone" eater.)

Second, I understand that restaurants need to invest a lot of time and money in their restaurant to make it successful. But, in the end, a good restaurant is always going to be better than a good food truck. And, for those that dream of starting a restaurant some day, wouldn't it be reasonable to get started with a food truck, and a smaller investment, to build up your business and see if you can make it?

As for my kids and I, we'll eat anywhere good in Houston. We do like the Waffle Bus... but then again, we've accepted waffles and their new mate (chicken). :)